The Russians owned California before the Mexicans. They don’t forget… lol
Remember Fort Ross
Really I thought Alaska was as far as they’ve gone… Russians are not equipped to colonize land beyond the subarctic zone… 
Fort Ross is in Sonoma County
The Russian expansion East was similar to American expansion West except twice as far and 100 years earlier.
In 1700 Russia was the richest country in the world largely due to the fur trade… By the time they sold Alaska in 1867 they had pretty much cleared out all the marketable furs. Did not figure on the gold and oil found later…
Yes I think North America is beyond their reach and would not have lasted even if they tried… 
The Spanish only wanted gold and the Russians only wanted fur. the English were interested in settlements… A more sustainable model for an empire…
Um… actually I don’t think commodities have anything to do with it. It has to do with geography. Russians did a fine job colonizing Siberia and so did the Spaniards with Latin America.
Siberia is quickly being depopulated. Originally they had to force people to settle there… The English model created the foundation for greatest country in the history of the world. The Spanish left South America a mess that still is a mix of failed governments and social disorder…
1 Like
Well, if that were the case then how come the English couldn’t colonize Siberia or Latin America since its model is by far “superior” to the Russians and Spanish?
The English were late to the game.
The British empire arose with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Actually the Armada was destroyed by storm in the Irish Sea… at about the same time Sir Walter Raleigh tried starting a failed colony in Roanoke Virginia
The Spanish arrived in the new world almost 100 years before…
It is an accident of history, but it was a good thing there was no gold found at that time in North America… the wealth of the American colonies came from settlement not gold…
Neither the Russians or the Spanish were interested in settlements… just commodities… Made them both rich for only a hundred years or so.
The Russians are still suffering from a commodity based economy,. The oil oligarchs are destroying the country…
Just like oil has devastated the Middle East. Commodity based economies are doomed… They encourage corruption, tyranny and chaos… especially when they run out or prices drop. Venezuela used to be the wealthiest country in South America … now a failed state…
1 Like
You need to be vastly superior in order to eradicate. English was vastly superior to the native Americans. Piece of cake to form the 13 colonies. However, Russians and Spanish were not that inferior to the English. That’s why Alaska could only be purchased with money and had to fight a war to earn California and Texas.
It is not about inferior or superior… It is about the historical facts… However the English had a superior political philosophy…called democracy… But of course it bit them in the ass when the Americans decided to exercise their own democratic rights with a Revolution… lol
Americans are just descendants of the English… no difference!
It is about superiority and inferiority. Europeans would never have been able to colonize America if the Native Americans were not vastly inferior to them.
Since historically, California and Texas were not part of USA, can they opt out of USA now?
Native Americans are sicker than the sick man of the East.
Um… there is an anti-cessation law. The South already tried that 150 years ago… it didn’t work out for them very well… 
Native Americans had no immunity to smallpox. They were already dying like flies before the fighting even got started… 
That was then, now is different.
California has money, and technology.
Can get many undocumented guys to help in the fighting.
Ok, first CA breaks away from US. Then SF can break away from CA. Lastly, I’m going to break my house away from SF to form my own kingdom…
Err, great!!! Publicity, of any kind, is good for business…
I’m amazed they didn’t make it based on income the way they want to make fines based on income.